Characteristics of the GPR field pattern antennas

摘要

Ground-Penetrating Radar has become a popular non-destructive and non-invasive tool in different kind of applications: civil engineering, archaeology, concrete and masonry analysis, etc The selection of the antenna frequencies depends on the application, but each antenna has a radiation pattern and some characteristics that have influence in the final interpretation and in the model obtained for the studied medium. The knowledge of these features and its coupling effects with the medium could improve the results of the GPR prospecting studies. In this work, some experimental procedures were carried out in order to obtain the 1.6 GHz centre frequency antenna characteristics in the air and in one material medium and to compare them First, the study of the attenuation due to geometrical spreading was performed. This result was compared with the amplitude attenuation in a material medium, deduced from the GPR experimental data Second, the shape of the radiation pattern was estimated in laboratory for different distances between the target and the antenna. Near field and far field were considered during the experimental data acquisition. Third, the relative amplitude of the reflected wave (in dB) was obtained depending on the relative position of the antenna over the target. The shape of the radiation pattern and the relative amplitudes obtained in the air were compared with those obtained in a slow medium (water) This slow medium was characterized with the wave velocity and the attenuation factor of the GPR signal.